Supremacist Pleads Guilty To Murder

`Hi Hitler' To Leave State On Federal Charges

Donald Leroy Evans, a white supremacist who boasted of killing a black woman in Fort Lauderdale and promised to turn his trial into a hate-mongering circus, unexpectedly pleaded guilty on Friday.

As part of his plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to drop a request for the death penalty. Evans, 38, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1985 murder of Ira Jean Smith. He also pleaded guilty to aggravated battery for jamming the heel of his hand into the nose of a Broward Sheriff's lieutenant at the jail.

Despite the life sentence, Evans probably won't spend any more time in Florida.

Sometime by early next week, he will be shipped out of Broward County to a new federal prison in Florence, Colo., to serve a life sentence on a federal kidnapping charge out of Mississippi.

"There are a lot of people in Broward County who will be glad to see him go," said Jim Lewis, the last of four lawyers used by Evans. "He'd wreaked enough havoc on the system."

Since being brought to Broward on the murder charge, Evans openly taunted his judge, attorneys, and jailers, promising to "serve up a dead cop" before he was through.

He asked in February 1994 to be addressed as "Hi Hitler," his version of the Nazi salute, "Heil Hitler."Acting as his own attorney, Evans filed dozens of motions, requesting to be allowed to wear Ku Klux Klan robes and drape his defense table with the flag of the Confederacy, among other things.

He was implicated in an escape plot that went awry when fellow inmate and accused rapist John Fogelman struck out on his own, only to fall to his death when the bed sheets he used to scale down the jail walls tore apart.

Evans' lengthy legal motions and his threats, which prompted extraordinary security - guards in riot gear attended some hearings - ensured that his trial would be a wild affair.

Despite his venomous spoutings, Evans impressed many with his self-taught legal acumen.

"Donald Evans is a very complex and interesting guy," said Tony Loe, assistant Broward state attorney. "He is no dummy."

Evans called Loe about three weeks ago and broached the idea of entering a plea in the Smith case. Apparently, a tabloid television show about one of his alleged murders moved him to give up the fight.

"He said he'd seen A Current Affair episode about a mother who hasn't been able to put the death of her son behind her," Loe said. "It caused him to have a newfound conscience."

Evans has not been charged in the 1982 Kentucky teen-ager's murder, the subject of the TV show, but "he intends to help authorities find the body in that case," Loe said.

"Every once in awhile he does something that shocks me, like he's a normal human being instead of someone who could squeeze the life out of somebody," Loe said.

Evans has, for example, called the state attorney's office on several occasions to inform them of illegal activities at the Broward County Jail, Loe said.

Although Evans has claimed responsibility for up to 60 murders, Loe said he knows of no other pending charges against him.

In December 1993 he was placed on Mississippi's Death Row for raping and murdering a 10-year-old girl.

Under an agreement with Mississippi authorities, Evans will remain in federal custody on a kidnapping conviction in the same case until his death warrant is signed, at which time he will be taken back to Mississippi.

A fingerprint was among the evidence that linked Evans to the 1985 strangulation murder of Smith, whose daughter, 14 at the time, was at Friday's hearing.

"I'm glad it's over," said Stephanie Dukes, now 25. "But I wish it had been more than life.

"I wanted him to know how much pain he caused our family," Dukes told the judge.

"There's probably nothing that would happen in a trial that would make you feel any better," Circuit Judge Sheldon Schapiro said. "If you're waiting for him to apologize, I think you would have a very long wait."

Schapiro said the case was the most bizarre he's had as a judge. He endured months of anti-Semitic epithets and circuitous legal arguments from Evans.

During one hearing, Evans taunted the judge, "What are you going to do, take away my lunch?''

Schapiro said his job was to make sure Evans got fair treatment: "The results show the system worked. We protected his rights. Maybe that's the difference between us and them. We have to follow rules."